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Security report for htwsaar.de

Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes · Education · Germany

Medium risk. 4 critical or high findings in GDPR outside view and SSL/TLS.

Security score

73/100

Risk levelMedium

0–100, higher is better. How it is calculated

The Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes (htw saar) is a public university in Germany specializing in technology and economics education. It offers a broad range of bachelor and master degree programs, including dual and international studies, supported by strong research activities and partnerships. The website reflects a mature digital presence with a professional design, clear navigation, and multilingual support, targeting students, researchers, and academic partners. Technically, the site is built on TYPO3 CMS with Matomo analytics, delivering moderate performance and good mobile optimization. Security posture is solid with HTTPS enabled, but lacks explicit security headers and formal privacy/cookie policies, indicating room for compliance improvement. WHOIS data confirms domain legitimacy and alignment with the institution's identity. Overall, the site is trustworthy and professional but should enhance privacy and security disclosures to meet modern compliance standards.

Scanned

NIS2 and GDPR posture

GDPR outside view
28/ 100 · High
Checks completed
7of 7

NIS2 Art. 21(2)

  1. (a) Risk analysis and security policies: Not visible from outside
  2. (b) Incident handling: One indicator
  3. (c) Business continuity, backups and crisis management: Not visible from outside
  4. (d) Supply chain security: Not visible from outside
  5. (e) Secure acquisition, development and maintenance, including vulnerability handling: Partly checked
  6. (f) Assessing the effectiveness of security measures: Not visible from outside
  7. (g) Cyber hygiene and security training: Not visible from outside
  8. (h) Cryptography and encryption: Partly checked
  9. (i) HR security, access control and asset management: One indicator
  10. (j) Multi-factor authentication and secured communications: Not visible from outside

This scan rated NIS2 with an earlier keyword method that is no longer shown; rescan for the per-article view. Risk management, continuity, supply chain, training, MFA, management oversight (Art. 20) and incident reporting (Art. 23) need internal evidence, and Guard cannot tell whether NIS2 applies to this organisation.

GDPR is indicative only, based on publicly visible signals: Articles 7, 12, 13 and 32 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive. Not a certification or legal assessment.

Priority findings

4 findings rated critical or high. Fix these first.

  1. GDPR outside view

    These are the privacy signals visitors and data protection authorities look for under GDPR.

    • Critical

      EU business without adequate privacy measures

      EU businesses are subject to strict GDPR requirements

      What to do: Implement comprehensive GDPR compliance including privacy policy, cookie consent, and data protection measures

    • High

      No Cookie Policy found

      GDPR requires clear information about cookie usage

      What to do: Add a dedicated cookie policy explaining cookie usage and purposes

    • High

      No Cookie Consent Banner found

      GDPR requires explicit consent for non-essential cookies

      What to do: Implement a cookie consent banner that appears on first visit

  2. SSL/TLS

    TLS encrypts the connection and proves the site is really yours. Weak or expiring certificates trigger browser warnings and put traffic at risk.

    • High

      Weak Protocols Supported

      Server supports weak protocols: TLSv1.1

      What to do: Disable TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, and all SSL versions

      • CWE-327
      • OWASP A04:2025
      • ASVS V12.1.1

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Keep watching htwsaar.de

This scan found 18 issues across 6 checks. Monitoring re-runs those checks daily, emails you when something material changes and records each fix, so you can show progress.

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  • TLS certificates and expiry
  • DNS records
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC
  • Security headers
  • GDPR and NIS2 posture
  • Exposed services
  • Third-party trackers
  • Security score drift

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Results by check

Each check with its score, findings and the evidence it collected.

How this score is calculated

The security score runs 0–100, higher is better. It is the plain average of the security checks that completed in this scan, each counted equally. A check that could not run is left out: it counts neither as a pass nor as a fail.

Counted in this score

SSL/TLS
82
Security headers
95
Email security
70
DNS health
65
Network security
100
GDPR outside view
28
Average
73

Not counted

  • NIS2 outside view: Re-weights evidence from the TLS, email, DNS, network and hygiene checks, so counting it would count that evidence twice. Shown on its own.
  • OffSeq Observations: An AI reading of the site, useful context but not reproducible evidence. Shown on its own.

Findings that cap the score at 49

Each of these is serious on its own, so while any is present the site cannot rate better than high risk, however good the other checks are.

  • The certificate is not trusted by browsers
  • The website is not served over HTTPS
  • A database, remote desktop, file-sharing or Telnet service is reachable from the internet
  • The page loads a script from a compromised source
  • The domain registration has expired
  • SPF authorises every server to send mail as the domain

Partial scans

When the site blocks Guard or most checks cannot run, the score covers only the checks that ran (usually DNS and email), is capped at 75 and is shown as partial, without a risk level.

Risk levels

  • Critical0–25
  • High26–49
  • Medium50–75
  • Low76–100

Breach exposure

Leaked credentials and lookalike domains from OffSeq Breach. The counts are free; the detailed lists are paid add-ons.

Dark web exposure

Add-on

Leaked records that mention htwsaar.de, from OffSeq Breach.

Total records
1,168
Employees
22
Customers
1,045
Third parties
101
Weak passwords
7%

Latest record dated 2026-05-25 · 52 subdomains affected

See the 10 newest leaked credentials

A one-off add-on to this report that lists the most recent identifier and password pairs OffSeq Breach holds for htwsaar.de.

Select it in the checkout above.

Masked preview

  • –stl-webmail.htwsaar.de2026-05-25
  • –stl-webmail.htwsaar.de2026-05-17
  • –webmail.htwsaar.de2026-02-22
  • –htwsaar.de2026-02-05
  • –htwsaar.de2026-02-05

Breach keeps ingesting new leaks, so these numbers can grow between scans.

Open in Breach(opens in a new tab)Monitor on Breach(opens in a new tab)

Technical appendix

Business context, site observations and technical notes gathered during the scan, and the standards behind each reference.

Business context

Business profile

htw saar occupies a stable position as a regional higher education institution with international reach through partnerships and dual degree offerings. Its business model focuses on academic education, applied research, and continuing education services. The university leverages collaborations with industry and international partners to enhance student employability and research impact. The website content and social media presence indicate active engagement with students and stakeholders, supporting growth and reputation. Certifications like the Deutschlandstipendium add trust signals. The institution targets a broad academic audience including prospective and current students, researchers, and international participants.

Security posture

The website demonstrates a baseline security posture with HTTPS enforced and no visible exposure of sensitive data. However, the absence of common security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options reduces defense-in-depth. No explicit incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies are published, which could hinder timely security communication. The use of Matomo analytics suggests a preference for privacy-conscious tracking, but cookie consent mechanisms are missing, which may affect GDPR compliance. Overall, the security maturity is moderate with clear opportunities for enhancement in policy transparency and technical controls.

Recommendations

  1. Publish a comprehensive privacy policy and cookie policy with explicit GDPR compliance statements.
  2. Implement a cookie consent mechanism to obtain user consent for tracking and cookies.
  3. Add security headers such as Content-Security-Policy, X-Frame-Options, and X-Content-Type-Options to improve browser security.
  4. Establish and publicize an incident response and vulnerability disclosure policy with dedicated contact channels.
  5. Include contact information for the Data Protection Officer to enhance transparency and compliance.

Contact details published on the site

Addresses
Legal name
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes
Site observations

Automated reading of the public site. Ratings are indicative.

Business

Company
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft des Saarlandes
Description
Studieren, forschen, Zukunft gestalten: Die htw saar bietet praxisnahe Studiengänge, innovative Forschung und starke Internationalität. Jetzt über Studienangebot informieren!
Key services
Bachelor and Master degree programs, Research projects and innovation, International exchange and dual study programs, Continuing education and certificate courses
Content quality
excellent
Branding
consistent

Technology

Stack
TYPO3 CMS, Matomo Analytics, CSS, JavaScript
Frameworks
TYPO3
Performance
moderate
Mobile
good
Accessibility
good
SEO
good

Security

Observed score
80/100
Good practices seen
  • HTTPS enabled
  • No exposed sensitive data in HTML
  • Use of async script loading

Analytics and tracking

Services
Matomo
Tracking level
moderate
Privacy practices
basic

Advertising

Tracking pixels
Matomo
Transparency
basic

Site quality

Design
excellent
User experience
excellent
Content relevance
excellent
Navigation
excellent
Professionalism
excellent
Trustworthiness
high

Key observations

  1. Website is a professionally maintained university site with comprehensive academic offerings.
  2. Content is rich, well-structured, and multilingual support is present.
  3. No explicit privacy or cookie policies found, which is a compliance gap.
  4. Security headers are not explicitly detected; HTTPS is enabled.
  5. Social media integration is extensive with official channels.
  6. No contact emails or phone numbers explicitly found in the HTML; contact form is available.
  7. No evidence of security incident response or vulnerability disclosure policies.
  8. WHOIS data supports domain legitimacy and consistency with the institution.
Technical notes

Notes

The website is powered by TYPO3 CMS, a robust open-source content management system widely used in academic environments. It uses Matomo for analytics, favoring privacy over commercial trackers. The site loads CSS and JavaScript asynchronously where appropriate, supporting performance. The design is responsive and accessible, with ARIA roles and skip navigation links. SEO is supported by meta tags, canonical links, and structured JSON-LD data describing the organization. Hosting details are not explicit, but DNS name servers indicate academic and German network infrastructure. No major technical debt or outdated libraries were detected, though security headers are missing. Overall, the technical implementation is solid with room for security hardening and privacy enhancements.
Standards and sources

Reference chips under each finding point to the standard, regulation or specification the finding relates to. They are taken from the official datasets below and mapped conservatively: a finding with no defensible link shows none. NIS2 and GDPR references mark where a finding is relevant evidence, not a compliance verdict. Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/2690 binds digital infrastructure and digital service providers; for other entities it is the most detailed public reading of the Article 21 measures. WCAG, EN 301 549, European Accessibility Act and Web Accessibility Directive references name the requirement an automated accessibility rule relates to; they are not a conformance verdict.

Retrieved 2026-10-25

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